Spam filters for Exchange 2000/2003
 

Has anyone got any views on these products?
GFI MailEssentials
IHateSpam for Exchange

Or any other suggestions?

TIA

Mark

Have you looked at Exchange IMF which is a free add on for Exchange 2003?

We use Mailsweep which is useful as it also acts as a buffer between the Corporate e-mail Servers and the 'net.

You can filter to the nth degree with Mailsweep and only need to open port 25 to the LAN from the DMZ where the Mailsweep server is.

AV / spam (including a link to spamhous.org) / profanity / size / executable / scripted / to/from certain people... all sorts of filtering available

Thanks guys

Miles
Not looked at IMF in any detail but noticed this from the makers of IHateSpam. Not surprisingly they don't seem to rate IMF.

Kieran
I'll have a look at Mailsweep. Does it need to run on a separate box?

Mark

Ideally yes - the latest version has a hell of required spec - plus to include AV filtering you need a separate AV product to catch a broader range of Malware.

We have Groupshield (Network Associates) running on the Exchange boxes and Sophos running on Mailsweep - what one misses the other generally catches

One of the best bits is wandering through all the bloody e-mails that get blocked.. you would not believe how explicit some people get!

I've got GFI ME running on my in-house network and some customer LANs.

It can be run on top of Exchange but I like to put it on a stand-alone box which can be dropped in the DMZ (like Kieran has mentioned). ME v10 can use Public Folders in Exchange for users to train the filter or blacklist / whitelist addresses without the need for Admin intervention.

I'll have more thoughts when I'm not so full of beer tomorrow :D

Hi,

Just for another comparison we use SurfControl Email Filter, its quite heavy on processing so needs to be on a decent machine but works quite well after its been configured properly

Cheers guys.
Chris:
Be interestedin your beer-free GFI comments :D

GaryScoobNCBR:
Any idea of the cost of SurfControl for 25 users? Their website is a bit vague

Mark

You should also have a look at http://www.barracudanetworks.com/products/

Depending on the size of your network and number of users, have a look at Frontbridge. Without doubt, the most effective spam filter I've come across. Blows away MessageLabs etc. They offer a 30 day free trial. We did this for one of our customers on a test domain and it reduced incoming emails from 30000 to 200 overnight!

Frontbridge don't sell direct - they work through partner firms - we provide it as a managed service. Realistic minimum number of accounts would be around 1500.

Chris L and Jeff:
I'm dealing with a client that only has about 25 users so those products you've recommended would be a bit over the top. However, for our larger clients, they're definitely worth a look.

Thanks guys

Mark

No problem Mark - PM me if you need anymore details.

For 25 Users surfcontrol would be way to expensive, do you have an idea on the amount of spam your trying to stop?

Maybe better just using the block blacklist in exchange or upgrade there outlook to 2003 and use the built in junk filter.